Arizona HOPE Conference
Conference Schedule and Speakers
Keynote: 9:00 am – 10:30 AM MST
Keynote Topic: Turning Pain into Purpose
Description: TEDx and emotionally naked storyteller, Anne Moss Rogers, has built a following on the tabooist of subjects—suicide, and the mental illness and addiction that often trigger it. After trying to find help for her once joyful son and rap artist, including wilderness therapy and therapeutic boarding school, Charles met heroin, a love affair that ended with his suicide in June 2015. This presentation is about her journey to healing by dragging an unpopular topic into the spotlight, how giving back has helped her heal, and how a blog community that came together in their shared pain has saved lives in the most surprising and unconventional of ways.
Learning Outcomes:
- How stigma played a role in Charles’s self-esteem, substance misuse, and suicide
- One mom’s unconventional way to save lives
- How one mom turned grief into action to find a path to healing
Lunch- Book Signing, 12:15 – 1:00 PM MST
A Teacher’s Guide To Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk
Breakout: 1:15pm – 2:45pm MST
Breakout Topic: The Emotionally Naked Truth About Student Suicide
Audience: Educators, youth leaders, and those interested in preventing youth/student suicide
Description: It was a teacher who first told Anne Moss Rogers that her son, Charles, might be suffering from depression. And it was a teacher who wrote the most heartfelt note after her son died by suicide. It was also the environment that exacerbated his feelings of worthlessness. Based on the book, Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk, this workshop will empower teachers and youth leaders with the skills to leverage their relationships with students to reduce this threat to life. Educators will learn the cryptic and often veiled ways students cry for help, how to respond and what to do. Attendees will also learn ways to model and embed SEL competencies and facilitate connection, the foundation of suicide prevention.
Learning outcomes:
- Real-life signs of suicide in youth and what to say/do
- Examples of how other teachers have seamlessly built connection, mindfulness, and coping skills into their classroom culture
- Lesser-known transitions when students are more at risk
- Roleplay with scripts from real-life scenarios (if time and venue is appropriate)
